Update a document

POST /{index}/_update/{id}
Api key auth

Update a document by running a script or passing a partial document.

If the Elasticsearch security features are enabled, you must have the index or write index privilege for the target index or index alias.

The script can update, delete, or skip modifying the document. The API also supports passing a partial document, which is merged into the existing document. To fully replace an existing document, use the index API. This operation:

  • Gets the document (collocated with the shard) from the index.
  • Runs the specified script.
  • Indexes the result.

The document must still be reindexed, but using this API removes some network roundtrips and reduces chances of version conflicts between the GET and the index operation.

The _source field must be enabled to use this API. In addition to _source, you can access the following variables through the ctx map: _index, _type, _id, _version, _routing, and _now (the current timestamp).

Path parameters

  • index string Required

    The name of the target index. By default, the index is created automatically if it doesn't exist.

  • id string Required

    A unique identifier for the document to be updated.

Query parameters

  • if_primary_term number

    Only perform the operation if the document has this primary term.

  • if_seq_no number

    Only perform the operation if the document has this sequence number.

  • include_source_on_error boolean

    True or false if to include the document source in the error message in case of parsing errors.

  • lang string

    The script language.

  • refresh string

    If 'true', Elasticsearch refreshes the affected shards to make this operation visible to search. If 'wait_for', it waits for a refresh to make this operation visible to search. If 'false', it does nothing with refreshes.

    Values are true, false, or wait_for.

  • require_alias boolean

    If true, the destination must be an index alias.

  • retry_on_conflict number

    The number of times the operation should be retried when a conflict occurs.

  • routing string

    A custom value used to route operations to a specific shard.

  • timeout string

    The period to wait for the following operations: dynamic mapping updates and waiting for active shards. Elasticsearch waits for at least the timeout period before failing. The actual wait time could be longer, particularly when multiple waits occur.

  • wait_for_active_shards number | string

    The number of copies of each shard that must be active before proceeding with the operation. Set to 'all' or any positive integer up to the total number of shards in the index (number_of_replicas+1). The default value of 1 means it waits for each primary shard to be active.

  • _source boolean | string | array[string]

    If false, source retrieval is turned off. You can also specify a comma-separated list of the fields you want to retrieve.

  • _source_excludes string | array[string]

    The source fields you want to exclude.

  • _source_includes string | array[string]

    The source fields you want to retrieve.

application/json

Body Required

  • detect_noop boolean

    If true, the result in the response is set to noop (no operation) when there are no changes to the document.

  • doc object

    A partial update to an existing document. If both doc and script are specified, doc is ignored.

  • doc_as_upsert boolean

    If true, use the contents of 'doc' as the value of 'upsert'. NOTE: Using ingest pipelines with doc_as_upsert is not supported.

  • script object
    Hide script attributes Show script attributes object
  • scripted_upsert boolean

    If true, run the script whether or not the document exists.

  • _source boolean | object

    Defines how to fetch a source. Fetching can be disabled entirely, or the source can be filtered.

    One of:
    _types:SourceConfig boolean _types:SourceFilter object
  • upsert object

    If the document does not already exist, the contents of 'upsert' are inserted as a new document. If the document exists, the 'script' is run.

Responses

POST /{index}/_update/{id} 
curl \
 --request POST 'http://api.example.com/{index}/_update/{id}' \
 --header "Authorization: $API_KEY" \
 --header "Content-Type: application/json" \
 --data '"{\n  \"script\" : {\n    \"source\": \"ctx._source.counter += params.count\",\n    \"lang\": \"painless\",\n    \"params\" : {\n      \"count\" : 4\n    }\n  }\n}"'
Request examples
Run `POST test/_update/1` to increment a counter by using a script. 
{
  "script" : {
    "source": "ctx._source.counter += params.count",
    "lang": "painless",
    "params" : {
      "count" : 4
    }
  }
}
Run `POST test/_update/1` to perform a scripted upsert. When `scripted_upsert` is `true`, the script runs whether or not the document exists. 
{
  "scripted_upsert": true,
  "script": {
    "source": """
      if ( ctx.op == 'create' ) {
        ctx._source.counter = params.count
      } else {
        ctx._source.counter += params.count
      }
    """,
    "params": {
      "count": 4
    }
  },
  "upsert": {}
}
Run `POST test/_update/1` to perform a doc as upsert. Instead of sending a partial `doc` plus an `upsert` doc, you can set `doc_as_upsert` to `true` to use the contents of `doc` as the `upsert` value. 
{
  "doc": {
    "name": "new_name"
  },
  "doc_as_upsert": true
}
Run `POST test/_update/1` to use a script to add a tag to a list of tags. In this example, it is just a list, so the tag is added even it exists. 
{
  "script": {
    "source": "ctx._source.tags.add(params.tag)",
    "lang": "painless",
    "params": {
      "tag": "blue"
    }
  }
}
Run `POST test/_update/1` to use a script to remove a tag from a list of tags. The Painless function to remove a tag takes the array index of the element you want to remove. To avoid a possible runtime error, you first need to make sure the tag exists. If the list contains duplicates of the tag, this script just removes one occurrence. 
{
  "script": {
    "source": "if (ctx._source.tags.contains(params.tag)) { ctx._source.tags.remove(ctx._source.tags.indexOf(params.tag)) }",
    "lang": "painless",
    "params": {
      "tag": "blue"
    }
  }
}
Run `POST test/_update/1` to use a script to add a field `new_field` to the document. 
{
  "script" : "ctx._source.new_field = 'value_of_new_field'"
}
Run `POST test/_update/1` to use a script to remove a field `new_field` from the document. 
{
  "script" : "ctx._source.remove('new_field')"
}
Run `POST test/_update/1` to use a script to remove a subfield from an object field. 
{
  "script": "ctx._source['my-object'].remove('my-subfield')"
}
Run `POST test/_update/1` to change the operation that runs from within the script. For example, this request deletes the document if the `tags` field contains `green`, otherwise it does nothing (`noop`). 
{
  "script": {
    "source": "if (ctx._source.tags.contains(params.tag)) { ctx.op = 'delete' } else { ctx.op = 'noop' }",
    "lang": "painless",
    "params": {
      "tag": "green"
    }
  }
}
Run `POST test/_update/1` to do a partial update that adds a new field to the existing document. 
{
  "doc": {
    "name": "new_name"
  }
}
Run `POST test/_update/1` to perfom an upsert. If the document does not already exist, the contents of the upsert element are inserted as a new document. If the document exists, the script is run. 
{
  "script": {
    "source": "ctx._source.counter += params.count",
    "lang": "painless",
    "params": {
      "count": 4
    }
  },
  "upsert": {
    "counter": 1
  }
}
Response examples (200)
By default updates that don't change anything detect that they don't change anything and return `"result": "noop"`. 
{
   "_shards": {
        "total": 0,
        "successful": 0,
        "failed": 0
   },
   "_index": "test",
   "_id": "1",
   "_version": 2,
   "_primary_term": 1,
   "_seq_no": 1,
   "result": "noop"
}